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Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Shot in the Dark -- Behind the Scenes -- H.J. Raine

Good morning! It's still morning here in the Mountains, at least. This is H.J. Raine here, co-author of "Shot In The Dark".This story takes place in New Amsterdam, the world in which Kelly Wyre and I write. New Amsterdam is the epitomic fictional Big City, blending the swift pace of New York City, the criminial elements of Gotham, and the political machine of Chicago.

It's a fascinating world to write in, and when I first heard that Torquere Press was going to do a collection of short stories for their benefit, another side character from our first novel Hearts Under Firecame to mind. Given that the collection was supposed to follow the theme of "leather", I went with having Ellis playing at the BDSM Club, Break.

Ellis was one of Maxwell Clark's subs back before Clark met up with Daniel, and he shows up in Heart Under Fire in that capacity; however, I wondered about where Ellis was from and how he interacted with all the players at Break. He was obviously under Clark's wing, which meant that he'd probably played with others of the owners. A lot of our books and stories have experienced players in the Scene in them, and I wanted to try something with a character that was brand new to it all. So I brought up the idea of Ellis's first scene to Kelly, and she offered Clark, Lucian, and even Tim for a non-sexual scene. The Ellis in my head asked for Clark. Kelly agreed, and she and Clark came up with a scene for the newbie Ellis.

It was really fun being able to write a detailed negotiation and aftercare, as those things often get neglected in fantasy BDSM. It was a real joy to have Ellis be as free to state his desires as he was in the story. While the story proved to need more room than the charity sips could allow, the editors were wonderful about publishing it whole. So we're able to present it to you in this novelette form.

So there you go, a peek behind the scenes as to how this story was written, and more about where I got the characters. Hope you enjoyed it and that you have a great day!
Thanks for reading!
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